This disclosure generally relates to panels made of composite material and their methods of manufacture. In particular, this disclosure relates to panels having a flame-retardant decorative finish and methods for manufacturing such panels. As used herein, the term “flame-retardant” means that the finish meets standard aircraft interior panel flammability requirements.
Certain mobile platforms, such as aircraft, trains and automobiles, may generally employ laminated structures to form various interior panels. Laminated structures serve to provide visually appealing surfaces to the objective viewer. For example, in a commercial aircraft, a plurality of laterally aligned overhead stowage bin doors are typically included along the port and starboard sides of the passenger cabin of the aircraft. These stowage bin doors each generally include a laminate disposed on the front of the stowage bin door to create a visually appealing interface for the customer. Further, the sidewalls or other panels in the passenger cabin may be lined with laminates to create a lightweight visually appealing surface. Advantageously, such laminates used in interior panels may also include patterns or other visually pleasing images. In addition, many other surfaces may be coated with a laminate to increase the visual appeal of the surface, such as doors, ceiling tiles and the like. Further, in some instances, laminates may also be used to display information to potential viewers, such as safety hazards or use instructions.
It is known to produce high-quality, fire-resistant, decorative finishes for aircraft interior panels using traditional industry standards such as bespoke painted panels or hydro transfer printing technology (sometimes referred to as “Hydro Printing”). Both of these industry standards are highly specialized, expensive, and somewhat limited (not a large number of providers).
Although the hydro-transfer printing process produces a very fine high-quality finish, it requires costly materials, part fixturing, process tuning (for the part to be finished), and specialized equipment (e.g., a water tank). The cost per part finish can be high. Also, there may be some size or geometry limitations due to the size of the special hydro-transfer film or because the part needs to be dipped into a water-filled tank or vat.
There is a need for a method of producing high-quality, fire-resistant, decorative finishes for aircraft interior panels without using the traditional industry standards such as bespoke painted panels or hydro-transfer printing technology.